A Stable Alkylated Cobalt Catalyst for Photocatalytic H-2 Generation in Liposomes

Photocatalytic proton reduction is a promising way to produce dihydrogen (H-2) in a clean and sustainable manner, and mimicking nature by immobilising proton reduction catalysts and photosensitisers on liposomes is an attractive approach for biomimetic solar fuel production in aqueous solvents. Current photocatalytic proton reduction systems on liposomes are, however, limited by the stability of the catalyst. To overcome this problem, a new alkylated cobalt(II) polypyridyl complex (CoC12) was synthesised and immobilised on the lipid bilayer of liposomes, and its performance was studied in a photocatalytic system containing an alkylated ruthenium photosensitiser (RuC12) and a 1 : 1 mixture of sodium ascorbate and tris-2-carboxyethylphosphine hydrochloride as sacrificial electron donors. Several parameters (concentration of CoC12 and RuC12, pH, membrane composition) were changed to optimise the turnover number for H-2 production. Overall, CoC12 was found to be photostable and the optimised turnover number (161) was limited only by the decomposition of the ruthenium-based photosensitiser.